Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Mental Health Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Roles of Trait Mindfulness and Perceived Stress.

The present study was conducted twice over one year during the COVID-19 pandemic with Chinese adolescents (n = 1582) to investigate the relationships among family socioeconomic status (SES), adolescent mental health problems, trait mindfulness, and perceived stress using self-reported measures. We administered the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PPS), the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and Conduct Problem Tendency Inventory (CPTDI) to a sample of Chinese adolescents. The results prove that (1) there were significant correlations among socioeconomic status, trait mindfulness, perceived stress, and adolescent mental health problems, and the (2) serial mediation analysis indicated that trait mindfulness and perceived stress performed as mediators on the path from SES to anxiety, depression, and externalizing problems. Our findings provide a contribution by showing the connection between socioeconomic position and adolescent mental health problems and by offering a reference for the treatment of psychological issues affecting adolescents.

Mental Health and Personality Traits during COVID-19 in China: A Latent Profile Analysis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health problems have increased and are likely to be influenced by personality traits. The present study investigated the association between personality traits and mental health problems (anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) symptoms, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms) through the person-centered approach because this has some advantages over the variable-centered approach. The data were collected from a sample of 765 Chinese citizens who participated in an online survey in October 2020. Latent profile analysis identified three latent personality profiles-highly adaptive, adaptive, and maladaptive. Highly adaptive individuals had higher extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and lower neuroticism, while maladaptive individuals had lower extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and higher neuroticism. Multivariate analysis of variance results showed that individuals with highly adaptive profiles had lower anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms compared to individuals with adaptive and maladaptive profiles. The findings of the present study indicate mental health professionals would benefit from formulated intervention plans given the association between latent personality profiles and mental health problems.

Follow-up to a randomized controlled trial of the effect of self-affirmation on anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent study showed that a brief intervention involving reflection on personal values (T1: 2 February 2020) can buffer the anxiety response one week later (T2: Feb. 9) during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The present study reported the results from a follow-up two weeks (T3: Feb. 16) and one-month later (T4: Mar. 1). Two hundred and twenty participants were recruited via convenience sampling and randomly assigned either to the value-affirmation condition or to a control condition, with 110 participants in each condition. The results revealed that similar to T2, participants who affirmed their values showed a lower anxiety response than those in the control group at T3, despite the pandemic continuing to increase rapidly during that time. Meanwhile, anxiety decreased in both groups at T4 as the pandemic eased. Findings suggest that self-affirmations can help reduce stress in the face of the COVID-19.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Initial Psychological Responses by Bangladeshi People (preprint)

The present study was aimed to investigate the causes of COVID-19 worry and its effect on initial behaviors that observed in early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh. In the online survey, participants‟ were asked about normative concerns, COVID-19 worry, initial behaviors, and the neuroticism personality trait. Results demonstrated that (i) higher normative concerns and neurotic trait were predictors of higher COVID-19 worry; and (ii) higher normative concerns and COVID-19 worry significant predictors of buying preparatory materials, higher worry for postponing travel plan, and higher worry and neuroticism for purchasing daily commodities more than usual and difficulties in concentration.

Self-affirmation buffering by the general public reduces anxiety levels during the COVID-19 epidemic

In December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. COVID-19 is characterised by fever and severe acute respiratory symptoms in early stages, which can rapidly progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome that is associated with high mortality. As of 9 February 2020, 40171 cases have been confirmed cumulatively and 23589 suspected cases were collected in China. The wide and rapid spread of COVID-19 has intensely captured public attention, leading to increased mental health stress. Timely mental health care and intervention during the outbreak of COVID-19 is urgently needed not only for confirmed or suspected patients and frontline medical workers, but also for the general public. Previous studies showed that affirmation of personal values can buffer psychological stress responses in various threat situations. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether an intervention involving reflection on personal values was capable of buffering psychological stress responses during the outbreak. We recruited 220 participants who completed a questionnaire on their personal values. Those in the self-affirmation group were asked to choose and write their thoughts and feelings of a personal value that made them feel important to themselves while those in the control condition were asked to do the same for a personal value that they thought was important to others. Both groups completed a Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) prior to and 7 days after intervention. We used two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate the buffer effect of value affirmation on stress responses with time of assessment as a within-subjects factor and intervention group as a between-subjects factor for anxiety and depression. Our results revealed a significant relationship between time and intervention for the reduction of anxiety. Further simple effect analysis demonstrated that the control group showed heightened levels of anxiety 7 days after intervention compared with before, whereas participants who affirmed their values did not show any increase. This effect remained significant after controlling for sex, age, educational level, and annual family income. However, no significant differences were found for depression. The present study demonstrates for the first time that an experimental intervention involving the affirmation of personal values can buffer psychological stress response during the COVID-19 epidemic. Specifically, participants who affirmed their values did not show increased levels of anxiety compared with control participants. Self-affirmation is easy to accomplish since it does not require professional guidance or a distinct environment and occupies little time, it would be a convenient strategy for the public to cope with psychological stress during the outbreak.